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Within this paper I will show reason and support for the development of my own personal philosophy of education I have found to be of importance that should be found in today’s classroom. I have a strong support of a safe environment and availability of free expression to be offered equally to every eager mind of a child. There are important assets that I will explore within this paper that I feel can be used as valuable tools to help construct less of “at risk students” and produce more positive citizens in the future of our society. I will try and support how schools and faculty play such a strong ole in a having the opportunity to be an additional role model in a child’s life. Are Students Intrinsically motivated to learn? I feel that students are always motivated to learn. Students may have different learning styles or different ways of interpreting information and it is the job of schools and faculty to keep abreast the constant changes needed within the classroom walls to help encourage the young and developing minds. Education should be made available equally to all students no matter where there home or school lies. I understand that different resource eeds are more needed in different areas of the nation depending on geographical motivations. In some areas of our nation there may be need for better trained bilingual instructors, while in others there may be need for higher federal funding to be allotted for free or reduced lunches. Nevertheless, there should be way to distribute funding to give every school in the United States appropriate resources to incorporate the highest form of education within our classrooms. Are There Certain Universal Truths that should be taught? Through time of history of philosophers there has been much research to support
Many different views of what is needed to better educate of future generations of children and how to accommodate the changing needs to produce productive citizens, but I find that no matter the philosopher of choice you base your own personal philosophy on, that conclusions should be similar in the end. Children are our key to success and utilizing every research tool possible from past and present can only help to develop strong reasoning for the good of education. I think that “open-mindedness” being allowed openly in a classroom of today can help to support and show the morality of a society.
Children should never be restricted in thought to be creative and should be promoted to speak freely with positive support. Teachers are the educators but can always be in place to turn back the clock of time as the student, if they allow there minds to broadened by their young students. What is the Ideal Curriculum? What Type of Classroom Environment is most Conducive to Learning? I would have to refer to Gardner’s Spatial Intelligence Theory, which refers to the use of pictures and images with a sensitivity to color, line, shape, and reform and their interrelationships (Webb, Metha, & Jordan 2007 ).
By using defining colors of pictures and defining shapes on the walls of a classroom, it can help to aid visual learners and to encourage all around involvement from everyone within a class. This particular theory of intelligence can help to encompass and expand the realm of human cognition from many angels of learning. Using Gardner’s theory of intelligence can encourage students in becoming more perceptive of visual details and at the same time helps to promote a good sense of location and direction. I also believe strongly that vivid colors found on the walls f a classroom can keep the excitement level of learning higher than arriving to a class with four white walls of no expression of excitement. A classroom should be made to feel safe, warm, and inviting to education. How do you know when your Students have learned? I would have to say that no test score could prove more positive of achievement within the eyes of an educator than positive attitude of learning developed among ones students. Pupils showing their eagerness through questioning and continuous motivation to be involved in classroom lectures would have to more proof positive to me than any statistic evel of scoring. The most important role of the teacher by my own definition would have to be to always provide a positive learning environment for their students. Having a strong support group can only help to promote a more positive institution of learning for a child. A teacher should stay abreast of protective factors to help students stay on a path of positive outcome. Key protective factors help to develop resiliency among students according to Benard (1997). Resilient children and youth share at least four common attributes: Social competence, problem-solving skills, Autonomy, and sense of purpose nd future ( Benard 1997). The key factors associated with resiliency include: (1) Support relationships, particularly encouragement from school personnel and other adults. (2) student characteristics, such as self-esteem, motivation, problem-solving skills, conflict resolution skills, and the acceptance of responsibility. (3) Family factors, such as parental support/concern and school involvement. (4) Community factors, such as community youth programs. (5) School factors, such as academic success and pro-social skills. (6) Cultural and religious factors that support self-preservation instincts and purpose of life Webb, Metha, & Jordan 2007, pg. 246). All of these factors standing strong within a student should be a positive indicator that an educator is performing at their best. What is the Role of the Student? The main role of a student should be to come to school with a willingness to learn and an to embrace the opportunity to broaden their minds. They should never sit in the back of a classroom with feeling of fear to ask questions and hide in the shadows unnoticed. Another strong role of a student should always show human kindness to others as should be demonstrated by all adult role models. Future educators should be qualified by ppropriate education degrees needed to educate students that will be the future of us all. Teachers should never lose touch with the ever changing need of economics or daily life changes that could change the way teachings are needed within classes. Constructive criticism can be a strong tool for future improvement of educators and should never be taken with offensive. If we were all perfect would not be considered to be human. My philosophy of education after reading my guidelines above would have to show that I can only support a pragmatism teaching environment. Pragmatism focuses on experience of the things that work.
Knowledge is derived from inquire, testing, questioning, and retesting-and is never conclusive ( Webb, Metha, & Jordan 2007 ) I would have to agree with the idea that there is never a wrong answer or any just one answer to a problem. I feel highly in promoting understanding that there is always more than one way to develop answers to equations. Description of Philosophy of Education The formal study of philosophy enables us as human beings to better understand who we are, why we are here, and where we are going ( Metha, Jordan, & Webb 2007). Through the development of my own personal philosophy, I have valued and learned the mportance of educators to encourage and promote positive attributes to students through open-mindedness, hands on learning, and freedom of questioning. Schooling needs to be a place for children to develop mentally, physically, and spiritually as an individual. If you compare my personal philosophy to the selected philosophy of pragmatism you find a similarity base of support. Pragmatism supports the idea of one answer never be certain without retest after retest, but yet supports that there may always be more than one answer to accumulate a conclusion. Meaning is derived from experience not from a given eality. Pragmatism also supports as well as my own the importance of hands on learning and open-mindedness to come to a conclusion. I feel that the mentioned philosophy and my own make a good match in comparison to prove the positive support the teacher and student relationship needs to be successful. Risk Factors concerning in a Student With my own philosophy wanted to promote the most positive atmosphere to a student, I would have to say that a child dropping out of school and school violence would have to be by far the strongest indicators that my philosophy was failing in a classroom.
If I had a child with poor grades and poor attendance with the risk factors of either dropping out of school or school violence as an issue to combat the reasoning of being an ” at risk” student, I would have to say that communication would be my strongest tool of choice. I would communicate with my student to listen to their reasoning of thinking that dropping out of school or unresolved school violence could be a deciding factor for a child to fail academically. Hopefully by listening to a child’s reasoning, I would then be able to put in place some intervention techniques that could be valuable.
I would promote the value and success behind an education. Show research information of economic status within our nation without having the most valued education available. Offer other resources to possibly rectify the reasoning for needing to dropout of school. I know that in some areas of our country, we have issues of students dropping out of School needing to obtain employment to help family situations, If this was the case among one of my students, I would try my best to come up with more flexible resolutions to the consideration of dropping out. There would have to be some sort of governmental esources available to help a family in need and help the student to obtain a job that would be flexible around school hours. Interventions towards school violence after communication would have to promote safety techniques on computers to make students aware of the risk they take just by surfing the net. If the violence was accruing within the school more directly, then I would have to make sure that child was never going from place to place alone for any further violence to occur. Talking to the parents of both students would be another intervention technique I would try to resolve the issue at hand.
Did my philosophy make a Difference with the Risk Factors? One can only hope that ones philosophy would be the key for all around improvement, but in a reality sense, I can say that there is no bullet proof philosophy that there will be no risk factors. I would think that would be wonderful but unrealistic. I would hope with my philosophy of promoting the most positive and supportive atmosphere possible to a student, then I would have less possibility of risk factors to be noted. If my philosophy is always on the course of promoting the reasoning that there is always more than one nswer and encourage questioning, than I would hope that I had laid enough ground work to support a student in need coming to me for help. Also by knowing the realism and possibility of risk factors then I feel more comfortable within my given philosophy that I shall be more cautious of visible signs of risk factors among students. I can only think that in the end that my own personal philosophy would lessen the possibility of one of my students having the chance of becoming introduced to risk factors. Conclusion Through the understanding of my own personal philosophy of “open-mindedness” and ands on learning I hope that I allowed considerable understanding I what I hope to promote in what it takes to encourage a positive atmosphere of a classroom in today’s time. One can only dream of being able to make such a wonderful contribution to the many educators that walk among us in our past and present schooling environments. Keeping a strong set of goals and techniques readily available to offer among children can only guide me and students in the path of success, I have learned so much from taking this education course and hope that it reflects clearly through my interpretations of this final paper I have drafted.